The Plot: Plans to Kill Jesus

You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun in practical ways. Well, good morning. We're a couple of friends talk about the Bible and fun and practical way, fun and practical ways. You know what. I'm in the mood to be fun and practical okay, and I'm feeling mildly friendly today. Mildly friendly. Yeah, that's great. It's creeping up on me. Hey, you know, give me a minute. At least you're honest, right, you know it's important self awareness, Jeff, good job. So anyway, well, hey, today, we are starting with a segment that we it's a rare segment, but when people write in at times, sometimes they write in questions that they want to know the answer touestions and then they call that segment, they get it to us and they call it stump the pastor yes. So anyway, before we get into this, let me just say that if you would like to email us at the Bible No Info at the Bible guys dot com, we would absolutely love to consider your question for a future segment, right, yeah, so, or you know, right, you can even give us your feedback on YouTube and all that kind of good stuff. So hey, you want to tackle it. Okay, So ivy b hi ivy Hi're so glad that you wrote this in And this is a great question. I bet you lots of people wonder about this. It says I stumbled on this verse while reading the Bible and was wondering our tattoos a sin. According to Levitigus nineteen twenty eight, it says, do not cut your bodies for the dead or put tattoo marks on yourselves. I am the lord. If so, does it not conflict or conflict with Revelation nineteen sixteen, where it says on his robe and on his thigh he has the name, this name written King of kings and Lord of lords talking about Jesus. Right, So there you go. There it is that you have Levitgus nineteen versus Revelation nineteen. Oh how about that? Whoa so ahead souts versus Revelation today today, today, Sunday, Sunday, Sunday. That's funny. So yeah, So, first of all, it's just comment on the fact that twenty twenty four, Uh, I think we can all agree tattoos are pretty much everywhere, Yeah, everywhere, yeah, they're everywhere. Everybody has a tattoo. Just about most pastors, I know a lot of them do, a lot of them do. Yeah. I'm not sure if most, but I bet you it's I bet it's close to most. Yeah. Everybody under forty, Yeah, everybody. That's exactly it. That's exactly it. It's anybody under forty. That's why it's most, right, it's more most at the order we get right, that's funny. So has everybody else got the mark of the beast? Oh no, no, jeez? So what do What do you say when you don't like something? You say? Oh no, oh no, you say no no. By the way, if I ever tell a funny joke and it's right, U kind of the cutting edge, and Jeff goes, oh no, him subconsciously separating himself from my statement. Don't laugh, don't smile, don't let it touch your faith, don't don't send any approval. My wife does that all the time. She says funny things and I go, oh no, and then she knocks me for it too. So, okay, let's tackle the verse, or let's here we go the issue. So, so I think the short answer is this. The short answer is in Leviticus. Uh, Jesus was giving specific laws to a Jewish culture for Mosar. Excuse me, sorry, did I say Jesus. I obviously know that Jesus wasn't the one given unless you he's the word. Jesus is the word. Hey. By the way, I saw a podcast yesterday that talked about you know, uh, so you know we're talking about Moses, right. So God it says that he wrote the stone tablets with with his finger, right, and then Jesus when when the woman was caught in adultery, he duped and he wrote in the dust in his finger. And he said, I wonder if he wrote nowshot doc coument adultery or whatever. And he said, but either way, he said, it is the same finger, right, because God and Jesus are one. So technically, theologically, Jesus is the word. Yes, the beginning was the word, with God the word. Theologically, I think I could say, yeah, Moses is the one who wrote Leviticus. So anyway, but it was given to a very specific Jewish culture for specific reasons, and it was also largely connected to the customs and perceptions of that day, which is why it says other things like you know, they're not supposed to take a razor to any hair on their head, right, Yeah, Well, the verse rate before this says, don't trim the edges of your beard and don't cut the sides of your hair. So this is why even today Orthodox Jews, you'll see the men will have the big long curls on the side. Is because of that verse rate before this verse right, right, And then that's why they grow, you know, they'll grow longer beards, and the older than men are, the longer their beards are a lot of times right in that And that's why is because the very specific laws to the Jewish people at that time. So, yeah, there's a difference between moral law, don't kill, don't steal. Right, Jesus is really clear. He didn't come to banish or change moral law. As a matter of fact, he re ups all of the moral laws. What Jesus came to do, though, is he fulfilled all of the levitical laws. So then the question is on this one, what is the purpose? So do not cut your bodies for the dead or put tattoo marks on yourselves. Traditionally, there were a lot of pagan rituals where they would cut themselves shed their own blood. They would have scars on their body acknowledging and representing the fact that they're carrying their dead people with them or something like that. And then the same thing with the tattoos. The tattoos would often either define their religious worship of dead, which there's cultures all around the world that still worship their dead right and so that or they would do the tattoo to acknowledge the ownership of the God that they have in their life that owns them right, So that would be a big part of that as opposed to decorative tattooing today might be a little bit different, but I would say that this probably falls I think most theologians would say this falls within the levitical laws, not the moral laws. Moral laws have to do with you and God, and you and people love God love, people, don't kill, don't have any other gods before me, those kinds of things, right, But when it comes to these kinds of things, this is probably more about the don't have any other gods before me. It's a pagan thing. But if you really want to get into it, and I think we were talking about this right before the show started in Rome, is fourteen, Paul says, you know, there's a lot of those kind of laws that you know, should you eat meat that's offered idols or shouldn't you? Right? And so these are non Jewish people, so they're not bound by Jewish law though, and he was a pharisee, right. The Apostles had already determined this in the Book of Acts, that the Gentiles weren't bound by Jewish law per se, the moral code, yes, but not the Jewish law. And so Paul is saying here then, in Rome's fourteen, just don't sin against your conscience. And in uh, what was it? I just wrote it down here a minute ago, Corinthians first, Corinthians six, he says in verse twelve, he says, everything is permissible from me, but not everything is beneficial. So that's really the issue, is Okay, on the one side, don't sin against your conscience, he says, for whatever does not proceed from faith is sin. So if you're doubting, gee, maybe I shouldn't, then you shouldn't, right, because you're not able to do it by faith. And then not everything that is that is good or not everything that we can do we should do, not everything that is permissible to us, is beneficial to us, and so I think you have to weigh those things. I personally don't believe it's sinful. I do think that there are advantages and disadvantages to tattooing, and so it just depends on your conscience with regard to that one. Yeah, is that consistent with what you believe? Yeah? Yeah, yeah, and then let's tackle Yeah, that's exactly what I believe. In fact, I would then add my personal feeling on it as well. And I believe because tattoos today, and again a lot of it has to do with culture. So I would imagine that back then tattoos were most likely only on pagan worship leader yeahs. And so if you saw a tattoo, then you probably almost you know, in the streets, you would probably say, well, that's a pagan worship leader, right, whereas today it is or that you are participant, that you were a participant participant, right, because we know it's changing peoples. They had tattoos, yes, So most of the time, a lot of times tattoos were identifying slaves. So then people would tattoo themselves to demonstrate that they were a slave to their gods. So Yeah, there are all kinds of reasons I ever thought about that. Yeah, but because tattoos culturally are are not perceived that way at all, And because of what you said, which is, you know, being under the levitical law and all things are you know, beneficial expedient and all those things. I personally think that tattoos can be something that's really positive. So I actually like them a lot. I have often thought about getting a tattoo. I just can't bring myself to do it, not because of conviction, because of the pain involved. So I just don't want to mess as a touch delegate. Yeah, so my wife actually makes fun of me and she goes, really she goes, that's why she goes, that's the reason why. And I said, well, that's partly the reason why, you know, but it's probably partly because I'm fifty, and it's like I've waited this long way. Why do it at fifty? Right? Yeah, that's right, Well why would you ruin this incredible canvasy this canvas? But anyway, so I actually think the tattoos are pretty awesome, and I think that they a lot of them. I don't want to say that all tattoos are awesome, right, like the guy who put the Lombardi trophy and said lines, oh yeah, yeah, that was terrible, bad choice. But across or something like that, right, where it's a testimony thing. Ye, yeah, So I would I would go back to the one phrase. I would not dismiss any of the Old Testament laws as being cultural. I think that that happens sometimes. So it's not because it was just a cultural thing back then, and culture. I was pointing out that the cultures right, right, So culture, culture doesn't change God's word. God's word should change culture, right, right. But what I'm saying is, in this context, it was written specifically for the Jewish society, right. It was written for them to them as an act within the levitical portion of the law, not the moral code, but within the levitical portion of the law, which had to do with being set apart from the rest to the world. That's the Jews. We're set apart from the rest of the world. They were supposed to be God's holy people. They were supposed to be different in every way, which we are too. Certainly right, come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord right, and Paul reaffirms that idea. So we're not supposed to be just like the world all the time. If you're doing it so that you're like the world, that would be I think wrong. If you're doing it for the purpose of testimony or because of some significant event in your life, and it's not that you're identifying with a pagan thing. I think as gentiles we are not bound by that levitical law. That would be the thing. So it's not a cultural thing. It's are we bound by that portional law or not? And for some people, I think, in for all of us, I think it can be a little confusing when you look into that. So that's why Paul would say, especially you have to do it by faith and don't sin against your conscience, and then consider is this the beneficial thing for what you're trying to accomplish in your life. And then it also says the second verse, which is Revelation nineteen sixteen, because she asks a follow up question, Yeah, yeah, yeah, so's it's Lividicus nineteen versus Revelation nineteen Yeah, that's right. And so she's saying, how does it how does it not conflict or conflict with this verse? And again it says on his which means Jesus's robe, and on his thigh he has the name written King of King's the Lord of Lords. I would just say. So some people would say Jesus has a tattoo, right, which, by the way, it doesn't say tattoo. I've actually whenever I've read that verse, I've always pictured war paint. Yeah, because you know it's it's in that you know him coming again, right, So yeah, that's that's what I was. It's on his robe. It could be a logo, yeah, a name tag, not like that. But it doesn't say it's a tattoo. It could be a sharpie marker for all we know, yeah, sharpie. Right. The story it doesn't say on the skin of his thigh, right, right, So it could be on his robe at his thigh, right. It could be that it could be Hannah or something where it's just a temporary tattoo. It could be that he used carcole and explain for people what head has. It's a temporary tattoo, That's what I said. I know it's common in India, sure it was. It's common all of the Middle East. My wife got one in uh Morocco on her hand, it's really pretty okay, But the idea being it does not say it's a tattoo and does not say it's in his skin or that it's permanent. Right, So, I know sometimes people would want to use that as justification. It's not. So it's not like we're pitying jesus tattoo against whether or not you can have a tattoo. Then it also doesn't say just because Jesus has his name on his right side doesn't mean you have to have your name on your right thigh. Then if you're gonna get really specific, say well Jesus has his name on his right thigh, I should be able to get a tattoo too, Okay, then you have to put your title on your thigh. That's all. That's the only thing to be permissible. Right, So if you're going to start parsing words or using specific things like that, well then it has to be precise. So if he's the king of kings, then you'd have to be the prince of princes, right, you know what I mean? What could you write if you're going to just justify because it's not saying he has a picture of I know a guy who was having a rough night and went and got a tattoo of what's that Looney Tunes guy that spins the Tasmani Tasmanian Devil? Yeah yeah, And then nothing in his life would would indicate that he would get a cartoon character for a tattoo. He was just drunk. He got a dumb tattoo, right, Yeah. So it's not that we can just go put anything on our bodies if you're going to try to use Jesus' name on his thigh as being a justification for it, So it's it's a slippery slope if you're going to try to use that as proof. So so this segment went long. We had to move on before we do. It is radically interesting that you mentioned Tasmanian devil with tattoos, huh, Because when I was in Bible College, a friend of mine who's still a pastor, whose name's JJ, he came to me because I draw a little bit, and he said, I want you to draw the Tasmanian Devil for my tattoo on my arm, and I want you to have him flex like this because he had he had he had some guns, right, and he said, I want I want that, I want him to be in his tornado, but I want him to be flexing. So I drew that and he took it to a tattoo artist, got it on his arm and still has it. So has it And then like instant message me and he was like, hey man, remember this, like thirty years later he still got it. Well that's the nature of tattoos. If he did it thirty years ago, you still got it right, right, yeah, but so interesting, It's like I forget all about it, right because for me it was a twenty minute, you know, thing of me drawing something. Right, for him, it's a thirty year thing. So so summarize, it's a levitical law directed right at Jews. You probably are a gentile and not bound by that law. And then so then is it going to be beneficial to your life? And are you sitting against your conscious to be the two big ones? Right? And I think the Jesus argument is irrelevant? Ye, all right, Well let's move on because we have screw. So the news is we could take a long time on that one because this passage, we're going through the two hundred and fifty events in Jesus' life yep. And while every event is important. This one doesn't have a ton of depth in it. So we're going to read three passages, Matthew, Mark, and Luke. And here's what it says. In Matthew, chapter twenty six one through five says, when Jesus had finished saying all these things, remember all the things he's been teaching every morning and every afternoon in the temple. When he said all these things, he said to his disciples, as you know, Passover begins in two days, and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified. At that same time, the leading priests and elders were meeting at the residents of Caiaphas, the high Priest, plotting how to capture Jesus secretly and kill him, but not during the Passover celebration, they agreed, or the people may riot. In Mark chapter fourteen, verse one, it says it was now two days before Passover, in the festival of the unloven Bread. The leading priests and the teachers of religious law were still looking for an opportunity to capture Jesus secretly and kill him, but not during the Passover celebration, they agreed, or the people may riot. And then Luke chapter twenty two says the festival of unleavened Bread, which is also called the Passover, was approaching. Leading priests and teachers of religious law were plotting how to kill Jesus, but they were afraid of the people's reaction. So there. Yeah, So so Passover would have began on a Monday, No Saturday, right, would have been on Saturday. Would have be done on a Friday evening. Friday evening and goes to a when Saturday evening. So then Sabbath begins on Friday and ends on Saturday. The passover feet the passover a week was only two days. No passover weeks a week, that's fat. I was like, what are you talking about? But the Passover it would have been that that Sabbath, the Sabbath of a passover would be okay. So there's there's a difference between the festival that's just a week long celebration, that's correct, and the actual observance of Passover, sure, which would have taken place on the Sabbath. There's there's the Sabbath that is the culmination of the Passover. Yes, I think is what I was trying to say. Yes, okay, so it begins a week earlier, right, okay, So what's interesting about this is that all the teaching that we've done for the last what two three weeks, yeah, happened in the first four days of the Passover celebration, right, right, So we've been teaching for weeks on what Jesus says in the first four days, and then now Jesus is on his fifth day saying, hey, in two days is the Passover. That's that's why I was confused. Yes, okay, so the whole week is Passover week, right, but he's saying, hey, in two days, Passover begins, okay, which is why I was asking, which, by the way, that itself is worth the price of admission there you go, right, So and so anyway there, so they're plotting to kill Jesus and it says that they're meeting in Caiaphas's house. Isn't it true that you got the opportunity to go to Chias's house? No, it was closed when we were there. Oh no, oh yeah, we went to the ancient city of David instead, which is right near there. Okay, So I had the opportunity to go into Kivas's house and there's a lot of you know, they always rate the accuracy of the sites. Yeah, you know, they always give it like a one, two, and three, And they rated Kivas's house as a one and they said that they said that they were certain that this was the house of Caiaphas for these reasons blah blah blah, and and you know, it's just a magnificent structure. And back then, a lot of the houses would be sort of they utilized cave structures, and they utilized the cool of you know, the rock around them, which, by the way, it's amazing, isn't it. How you could be out in one hundred and twenty degree heat and then you could walk down into this cave and you would think that it'd be hotter in a cave, but it's actually really cool, like to the point where hey, do you have a sweater? Yeah? Like isn't that crazy? By the way. But anyway, so a lot of Kivs's house was actually slightly built into the rock, and so you get to sort of see where that dwelling was. It was magic, magnificent in big but there was also this like spiral staircase that was built later that you were able to walk down into the dungeon where prisoners were held before trial in Chives's house. So when Jesus was taken to trial and he was being held at Chives's house, he would have been there right before he went through the crucifixion. Wow. And so it was actually extremely emotional. So, you know, you get to go down this spiral staircase and you're standing in this this pit made out of a cave, and you're looking up and you're thinking, this is the only dungeon in Chives's house where prisoners are held before trial. Jesus was there, which means Jesus was pretty certain that Jesus was here in this pit awaiting his crucifixion. So, and by the way, and I'm talking like it was not why it was like it was I don't know how to say this, maybe five by five, yeah, right, So, but it was round, and it was actually pretty emotional. It's a really powerful thing to be able to walk into places that you knew Jesus was standing and was that. Let me read this note as we wrap up this episode today, Luke, chapter twenty two, verse one. The note in the Life Application Bible will bring clarity to the conversation. We were just having a second ago. I misspoke a little bit. It says all Jewish males over the age of twelve were required to go to Jerusalem for the Passover festival, which was followed by a seven day celebration called the Festival of Unliving Bread. Right, So there's the Passover and then there's the festival on loven Bread, which was still what they would call the festival the Passover, right, those were, so it kind of gets a little convoluted there, but it was followed by so Passover begins and then the seven days follows the beginning of Passover. Does that? Does that make sense? So I was saying it was ahead. It's after for these festivals, Jews from all around the Roman Empire would converge on Juru some to celebrate one of the most important events in their history. Right. And we'll talk more and more and more about this, because now now that we're entering in everything has significant symbolic meaning all connected to the Passover. So we'll be talking about that over the next couple for certain. So okay, well, that's great. We spent a lot of time on the stuff the pastor but again, them plotting to kill Jesus isn't new right. Yeah, this has been a theme, this is. But they were you know, the only new information here is is that they didn't want to do it when the crowds would riot. Right. But it turns out that they eventually get to the place to where they're gonna have Jesus crucified right on the tail end of this correct. So all right, Well, that's all the time we have and we will see you next time. All the Bible guys